Anniversaries

Births: Elizabeth of York, Henry VII's queen, 1465; Pope Gregory XIV, 1535; Peter Arnold Heise, composer, 1830; Josiah Willard Gibbs, physicist, 1839; Thomas Alva Edison, inventor, 1847; Farouk I, King of Egypt, 1920.

Deaths: Joanna II, Queen of Naples, 1435; Elizabeth of York, Henry VII's queen, 1503; Honore Daumier, caricaturist, 1879; Sir William Blake Richmond, painter, 1921; Sir John Buchan, first Baron Tweedsmuir, governor-general of Canada and novelist, 1940; Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein, film director, 1948; Henry Mayo Bateman, cartoonist, 1970; David Garnett, novelist, 1981.

On this day: St Bernadette had her vision of the Virgin - 'The Miracle of Lourdes', 1858; London University received its deed of settlement, 1826; a treaty, signed by 63 countries, prohibited the installation of nuclear weapons in the sea-bed beyond a 12-mile coastal strip, 1971; Mrs Margaret Thatcher became the first woman leader of a British political party, 1975; the black nationalist leader Nelson Mandela was released from prison after 27 years, South Africa 1990.

Today is the Feast Day of St Benedict of Aniane, St Caedmon, St Gregory II, Pope, St Lazarus of Milan, St Lucius of Adrianople, St Pascal I, Pope, Saints Saturninus, Dativus and Others and St Severinus of Agaunum.